


Inheritance

by DystopianDuckie



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Endgame, Family, Post-Endgame, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, life after tony's death, peter and morgan are siblings, peter stays at tony's house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 11:18:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18637069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DystopianDuckie/pseuds/DystopianDuckie
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERSPeter goes to visit Pepper and Morgan after a difficult day at school a few months after Tony's death. Pepper has a surprise for him and he hangs out with his family (they are a family, okay).





	Inheritance

**Author's Note:**

> I love Peter and Morgan and Peter and Tony, this was my first time writing Peter and Pepper interacting and I had a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy!

Pepper looked up from her book on composting as the doorbell rang. Morgan’s tiny feet pounded down the stairs from her room as she ran to answer it, making Pepper jump up to try and beat her to the door. 

“Wait a second, Morgan,” she called out to her daughter, knowing it would make little difference. Morgan, like most children, loved opening the door. 

“Peter!” Morgan squealed as she pulled the door open. “I didn’t know you were coming to play today.” Pepper raised her eyebrow at that as the teenager greeted Morgan and came inside. He had what looked like an overnight back slung over his shoulder, his laptop poking out the top of his backpack. More noticeably, he was wearing his suit. He was always welcome here, but he usually called in advance. 

“Hey Peter,” Pepper said to him as they all moved through to the living space. “It’s nice to see you.” She hoped he would pick up on the unspoken questions that hung in the air. 

“I’m sorry, I should have called,” Peter said, in that quick tumble of words he so often used when he was nervous. “I had a bit of a rough day at school and I kind of just came here. I can go if you need me to?”

“No, no, don’t worry about it,” Pepper reassured him. “I meant it when I said you were welcome anytime.” 

“I love when you come to play,” Morgan told him enthusiastically, causing Pepper and Peter to laugh. It had only been a few months since the battle, since Tony had died, but the laughter had returned more easily than Pepper had expected. She still felt his loss as a sharp pain in her gut when she wanted to share something with him, or show him something new that Morgan had done. She still slept on her side of the bed, his nightstand untouched, but some things were getting easier. Peter and Morgan made it easier. 

“Does May know where you are?” Pepper asked quietly, not wanted to overwhelm Peter too much but understanding, now more than ever, the need to know people were accounted for and safe. 

His look gave him away. “I’m sorry,” Peter started to apologise, but Pepper cut him off. 

“I’ll give her a call,” she said simply, “do you want to stay here tonight?” 

Peter looked at his overnight bag, no doubt wondering whether he could back out now and impose less, but he seemed to think better of it. “If you don’t mind, I can take the couch.” 

“But you have to sleep in a bed,” Morgan told him, her child-like logic shining through. Pepper, for the most part, agreed with her. She had spent enough nights on a couch in her life to know that a bed was far superior, especially if you’d had a rough day. 

“But you don’t have a spare room, kiddo,” Peter said, ruffling her hair and making her giggle. It was the moments like these that made it hard to believe they had only known each other a few months. Morgan was as comfortable around Peter as she was around Pepper, and almost as close as she had been with Tony. He couldn’t replace him - no-one could - but Pepper was glad Morgan had more family in her life. 

“There’s a bed in the lab,” Pepper said quietly, another piece of grief worming its way from inside her, “I can make it up for you.” 

Peter looked across at her with wide eyes. “I didn’t know you had a lab,” he said, confused. 

“It’s in the basement,” Pepper explained, “it was Tony’s lab, not mine. I haven’t been in there since he died.” Hence why she was reluctant to mention it. 

“Honestly the couch will be fine,” Peter told her, whether to spare her feelings or his own she didn’t know. 

“I’ll make the bed up anyway, and then you can decide,” she told him, deciding it was best to leave it up to him. “Tony wanted me to show you two the lab anyway, it’s part of your inheritance.” 

“But we had the funeral and the will, why would I get any inheritance,” Peter asked calmly, but Pepper could see the slight hurt in his eyes that he hadn’t been included in the will. She knew how close Tony and him had been, but neither of them had fully expected Peter to be able to attend his funeral when the day came. 

“You know why,” she told him gently, “Tony viewed you as a son, or as close as. He wanted to include you in the will but you were, well, dead at the time. The lawyers couldn’t make it work.” 

“Oh, yeah,” Peter said, as though he had forgotten the five years he had ceased to exist. 

“I wanna see the lab again,” Morgan said excitedly, tugging at Pepper’s sleeve and moving them towards the basement stairs. Pepper was glad for a change in the mood and, like usual, her daughter’s haste helped to drag her through the worst of the grief and into motion. 

“You’ve seen it?” Peter asked her, his voice filled with excitement rather than jealousy. 

“Yeah, Daddy used to let me help him with his projects if I didn’t touch the dangerous bits without him looking,” Morgan explained. 

“Is that safe for a four-year-old?” Peter asked dubiously, giving Pepper a glance. He didn’t usually question their parenting methods, given he was a polite kid, and he seemed nervous about how it would go down. 

Pepper just laughed, watching as Peter visibly relaxed. “Probably not, but Tony wouldn’t take no for an answer. I told them if they kept her well supervised I would be more comfortable with it. Tony was careful with her, though, more careful than he was with himself back when we met. We told you about when he made me stick my hand in his chest to take the old reactor out, right?” 

Peter smiled. “Yeah, the ‘proof that Tony Stark has a heart’ story,” he replied, “and to think he was always telling me to be careful.” 

“He was a lot more protective of his kids,” Pepper agreed. Peter lit up with at her words, like he did every time she mentioned it. 

“He wouldn’t let me use the circular saw though,” Morgan piped in, her voice wistful and almost disappointed. “Will you let me-”

“No,” Pepper cut in, lifting her down the last few steps to the lab door and entering the code. “I’ll send you the access code,” she told Peter, “but I don’t want  _ this one _ ,” she pointed to Morgan, “knowing it until she’s older.”

“Of course,” Peter agreed. 

“You’re welcome to come down here anytime. Ground rules are that you supervise Morgan if you have her down here, she doesn’t use the circular saw until I say she can, and you both stop for mealtimes and bedtimes. Morgan goes to bed at seven.”

“I stayed up later sometimes with Daddy,” Morgan protested but a big yawn gave her away and it was only five pm. 

“Is my bedtime seven?” Peter asked hesitantly, looking at the small pull-out bed in the corner of the lab. 

“No, of course not,” Pepper laughed. “I don’t know if you still have a bedtime with Aunt May, either. I’ll ask her when I call. Just don’t stay up late into the night working, okay? You need your rest.” If Peter wanted more proof that he was part of the family then here it was, another mother-figure nagging him to eat well and get enough sleep. 

“Can we do some work now?” Morgan asked, already inching her way to the computer on the far side of the room. 

“I guess,” Pepper said, looking over at Peter for confirmation. “Are you confident supervising her?” 

“Yeah,” Peter said, then again more confidently. “It’s a lot of the same stuff we had in the lab before, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Okay,” Pepper said, “well I’ll be just upstairs if you need anything. Dinner’s in an hour and then it’s bath and bed time for you, little one,” she said to Morgan. “Have fun,” she added to both of them as she went up the stairs and back into the rest of the house. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know what you think.


End file.
